Locations

Making Taxes Less Taxing

Client
VA Tax

Challenge

Most people don’t look forward to calculating or paying their taxes, but Virginia Tax wanted to make their website less trying. Having a modern site that could serve millions of citizens and a quarter-million businesses was no easy task, but the agency knew they needed a design and brand that left taxpayers and professionals satisfied.

Results

Since the site went live, efficiency and success rates for key online tasks have increased. The new site also enables real-time updates, is easily maintainable, and can be fully supported by internal IT staff. In addition to its sleek and modern new look, the new design is fully responsive and provides optimized viewing on any web-enabled device. It’s also compliant with every Virginia and federal regulation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Time for an Upgrade

Research indicated that customers who interacted with Virginia Tax employees directly had positive experiences, but people weren’t as satisfied with the agency’s website. Additionally, the site was running on an outdated version of Drupal, an open-source content management framework.

Refreshed, Revamped, Reimagined.

To transform the department’s visual identity to reflect the agency’s personality, we partnered with Virginia’s Tax commissioner and leadership team. We also surveyed more than 600 taxpayers and conducted a dozen stakeholder interviews to understand both the perception and the reality of the Virginia Tax brand. The implementation of a newer version of Drupal eliminated the costs of installing and operating an entirely new platform while mitigating the need for staff retraining.